Sea Salt Rib Roast with all the trimmings: Thousand- Layer Duck Fat Potatoes, Braised Red Cabbage with Red Currant Jelly, and Three-Cheese Cauliflower- Gratin. See pp. 89–90 for recipes.

ANYA N Y GGIVENI V E N SU ND DAYAY

London chefs pay tribute to the ultimate home-cooked meal: the Sunday roast.

BY JAY CHESHES

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTOR PROTASIO SIMON WATSON

FEBRUARY 2019 83

FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 82 12142018124818 12/14/18 12:44 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 83 12142018123500 12/14/18 12:33 PM NO MEAL IS MORE BELOVED BY BRITS THAN THE SUNDAY ROAST.

The classic meal is a gray-weather-soothing, all-day-eating, then veg- on-the-couch-in-a-food-coma affair (think Thanksgiving, if it came once a week), and the communing around slabs of roast meat is a remarkably sturdy tradition—one that’s survived mad cow disease and the new appreciation in Britain for healthy (even vegan) eating and remains a nostalgic bulwark against the spread of American-style brunch. “What’s brunch?” says chef and roast fanatic James Knappett of London’s Bubbledogs and Kitchen Table restaurants. “A bit of granola and a poached egg? What’s the point? Let’s get something proper to eat.” Knappett and I are among 200 or so hardy diners attending what’s advertised as the ultimate gluttonous Sunday roast on an unseasonably warm Monday night in the spring. It was scheduled for Sunday originally, but a last-minute change in venue bumped The Great Roast, as the banquet’s being heralded, forward a night. The festivities kick off with cocktails outside Royal Hospital Chelsea’s Great Hall in West London at 6 p.m. Like any truly great Sunday roast, The Great Roast promises to kill us with excess. That its 14 courses are from some of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary chefs, cooking alongside award-winning European colleagues from across the continent, helped this marathon meat fest sell out fast. By 8 p.m., we’re gathered at long wooden tables enjoying a family- style feast. Regimental banners from bygone British wars dangle overhead like house flags at Hogwarts. Simon Rogan of two-Michelin-starred L’Enclume in England’s Lake District sends out big platters of dry-aged roast duck. Stephen Harris of The Sportsman in Kent, the country’s most acclaimed country pub, offers roast pork loin with crisp crackling. There’s lamb neck from Dutch chef Jonnie Boer, spicy chicken from Sweden’s Björn Frantzén, and potato salad with baby shrimp from Belgium’s Kobe Desramaults. Three hours in, antique silver trolleys arrive with the main event: giant blistered haunches of roast British beef, carved tableside by the London chefs who prepared them, Knappett and Shaun Searley of The Quality Chop House. The two are best mates who spend their Sundays off cooking meat together. Their final savory course comes with Yorkshire pudding and roast potato “trimmings,” as well as an extravagant, creamy morel mushroom gravy. Despite the international mix in the kitchen, it’s an elementally British evening, built on generosity and conviviality and copious amounts of good food and drink. Former music executive Steve Plotnicki, who organized the dinner in lieu of an awards show for his Opinionated Stalwart and true, a carved About Dining European restaurant survey, puts it best: “What could be Sea Salt Rib Roast stands ready for serving with Morel Cream more British than a Sunday roast?” Gravy. See pp. 90–91 for recipes.

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FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 84 12142018123500 12/14/18 12:33 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 85 12142018123501 12/14/18 12:33 PM 5 Great ACROSS LONDON, the Sunday roast is a class leveler enjoyed Sunday Roasts by every demographic, from Mayfair mansions to council estate flats. in London Though best eaten at home, it’s also long been the purview of the neighborhood pub. “People love on Sunday to go for a long walk in the BLACKLOCK country and end up at a pub having a roast by the fire,” says chef Merlin Blacklock’s spot in Soho Labron-Johnson, formerly of London’s Portland restaurant, who serves London’s most popular Sunday roast, drawing a contributed an eel and beet starter to The Great Roast. crowd for its heaping platters The roast became a democratized British birthright starting in the of charcoal-roasted beef, 19th century, according to food historian Ivan Day, as the cost of meat lamb, or pork. The “All In” and fuel began to plummet. “Suddenly, ordinary working people could features three meats piled high with all the trimmings, roast meat using this new cheap fuel—coal—and the day when they stop along with a bubbling crock of working, on a Sunday, would become the time for it,” he says. cheesy cauliflower. Book in For most Brits, the Sunday roast remains about family first, which is advance. (From $21 per why even the most meager versions still have emotional resonance. “If person, theblacklock.com) you go and see your nan and she’s managed to put together a roast THE QUALITY CHOP HOUSE dinner, and the Yorkshires are frozen, and the veg is frozen, there’s still Shaun Searley’s rustic tavern something about it,” says Knappett. “You’re like, this is right; this is serves one of the city’s most good. There’s so much nostalgia to that meal.” elevated beef roasts, always Though its makeup can vary widely, the quintessential roast dinner pairing two cuts from the revolves around a big piece of well-marbled beef, ideally roasted on the whole cows that come into its attached butcher shop—one bone until it’s crisp around the edges and still pink inside. A love for slow-braised, the other butter- roast beef runs at the historic heart of British culture. “The roast beef of roasted. Don’t miss the justly old England became a symbol of British power, of patriotism,” says Day. famous thousand-layer confit “Across the Channel, the French took the potatoes. (From $38 per person, thequalitychophouse piss out of us and called us les rosbifs as a .com) kind of joke, but hidden in that is a certain amount of respect for the fact that our meat THE DRAPERS ARMS was much better, and we knew how to cook “PEOPLE LOVE For the classic pub roast it really well.” experience, head to this clockwise from top left: And you can’t have roast beef without ON SUNDAY TO bright, bustling, duplex boozer Chef Shaun Searley at The in Islington, packed with Yorkshire pudding. Many Brits judge their Quality Chop House; The GO FOR A LONG rambunctious groups at big Colony Grill Room; Sunday Sunday roasts by the size of those puffy wooden tables whiling away roast fan and chef James popovers, like mini soufflés, made from a hours tackling endless pints Knappett; The Drapers Arms simple batter of milk, flour, and eggs cooked WALK IN THE of ale and homestyle platters of meat. (From $25 per in molds filled with sizzling fat. “It would COUNTRY AND person, thedrapersarms.com) be met with a riot if there wasn’t Yorkshire pudding in our house,” says Rogan. The END UP AT A PUB THE COLONY GRILL ROOM batter, ideally, should be made a day ahead, This nostalgic, clubby Mayfair according to Paul Weaver of London’s Noble restaurant is an exceptionally HAVING A ROAST civilized spot to enjoy a Rot restaurant, who prepared the Yorkies Sunday roast—and a great (as they’re sometimes known) that were BY THE FIRE.” option for carnivores stuck served with The Great Roast’s beef. “It needs dining with non-meat-eating time to develop flavor and structure.” And friends. The sprawling Anglo- American menu features a they should crisp as they rise but remain top-notch brunch section as soft in the middle. “The pudding part is well. (From $38 per person, important,” says Searley, “the contrast of two textures.” colonygrillroom.com) From the finest hotels to the edgiest gastropubs in London, the Sunday BRIGADIERS roast is surging in popularity as a restaurant meal (find one to try with Siblings Karam, Sunaina, and “5 Great Sunday Roasts in London,” at right). But even the most Jyotin Sethi opened this Anglo- ambitious chefs rarely fiddle with the classic formula. On a recent roast Indian hot spot. Its Sunday tour through the city, the beef—whether individually plated or on big, roast, an enormous family- pass-around platters—always came with Yorkshire pudding and golden style feast, pairs masala- rubbed tandoori-cooked rib potatoes cooked in duck or goose fat, with meaty gravy and horseradish eye with breads, chutneys, cream for spooning on top. and free-flowing cocktails. “When I think of Sunday roast, I think of family, sharing, being happy,” (From $39 per person, says Labron-Johnson. “People don’t mess around with it. You won’t chef brigadierslondon.com) it up too much.”

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FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 86 12142018123501 12/14/18 12:33 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 87 12142018123501 12/14/18 12:33 PM Three-Cheese on a baking sheet lined with tender and translucent, 10 to 1/2 cup duck fat, melted

Cauliflower Gratin paper towels; set aside. 12 minutes. Add cabbage, and 1 Tbsp. plus 11/2 tsp. clockwise from top left: cook, stirring often, until kosher salt, divided Beef Tallow–Baked York- ACTIVE 35 MIN; TOTAL 55 MIN 2. Melt 2/3 cup butter in a large slightly wilted, 5 to 7 minutes. shire Pudding, Three- SERVES 12 saucepan over medium. Vegetable oil, for frying Stir in vinegar and sugar. Cheese Cauliflower Gratin, Gradually whisk in flour. Reduce heat to medium-low. and Braised Red Cabbage If there’s a better way to eat Cook, whisking constantly, 1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Line Cover and cook, stirring occa- with Red Currant Jelly cauliflower than this gratin until mixture is smooth, about an 8-inch square baking pan sionally, until cabbage is ten- from Blacklock, we have yet 1 minute. Gradually whisk in with parchment paper, allow- der, 35 to 45 minutes. Add to come across it. A power- warm milk. Cook, whisking ing 2 inches of overhang on all house of English cheeses— constantly, until mixture is red currant jelly, salt, and sides. Toss together pota- 1 Montgomery’s crumbly and thick and bubbly, about 2 remaining /4 cup butter; stir toes, duck fat, and 1 table- nutty cheddar; Ogleshield, a minutes. Gradually whisk in until jelly and butter have spoon salt in a large bowl until washed-rind Jersey cow milk cheddar, Ogleshield, Stilton, melted. Serve hot. well coated. Place a single cheese; and buttery, blue- white pepper, nutmeg, and layer of potatoes in prepared veined Colston Bassett remaining 2 teaspoons salt Thousand-Layer Duck pan. Top with a second layer Stilton—blankets cauliflower until smooth. Fat Potatoes of potatoes, covering any florets in a béchamel. gaps in first layer. Repeat lay- 3. Transfer cauliflower and 5 ACTIVE 1 HR; TOTAL 12 HR ers with remaining potatoes. cups cheese sauce to a large SERVES 10 3 qt. water Drizzle any remaining duck bowl; stir to coat. Spoon mix- 1/3 cup plus 2 tsp. kosher When chef Shaun Searley pre- fat in bowl over top. Cut an ture into a 21/2-quart baking salt, divided 8-inch square of parchment dish. Pour remaining 1 cup pares these crispy potatoes at 2 medium cauliflower paper, and press directly onto cheese sauce over top. Bake The Quality Chop House, he heads (about 4 lb. starts with King Edward pota- surface of potatoes. Cover total), cut into florets in preheated oven until edges toes, which have a fluffy tex- pan tightly with aluminum foil. (about 12 cups), stems are bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. ture. Be sure to start a day Bake in preheated oven until discarded Meanwhile, melt remaining 2 ahead so the cooled confited potatoes are tender (remov- 2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp. tablespoons butter. Place potatoes slice cleanly. The ing foil to test with a wooden unsalted butter (about melted butter, panko, and portioned potatoes can then pick), 2 to 3 hours. 61/3 oz.), divided Parmesan in a small bowl; stir be stored in the freezer for up 1 cup all-purpose flour to combine. Sprinkle panko 2. Transfer pan to a wire rack, to a month before frying. (about 41/4 oz.) mixture over casserole, and and remove foil, leaving 4 cups whole milk, bake at 425°F until golden parchment sheet on pota- 41/2 lb. King Edward, brown, 6 to 8 minutes. warmed Kennebec, or Yukon toes. Set a second 8-inch 7 oz. Montgomery’s Gold potatoes, peeled square pan on top of potatoes mature cheddar cheese Braised Red Cabbage and cut lengthwise into in pan, and weigh it down with or other aged cheddar with Red Currant Jelly 1/8-inch-thick slices unopened canned goods. Let cheese, shredded TOTAL 55 MIN; SERVES 6 (about 1 3/4 cups)

7 oz. Ogleshield cheese or A mainstay of traditional Brit- Dubliner cheese, Crispy Thousand- ish Sunday roasts, red currant shredded (about 13/4 Layer Duck Fat cups) jelly brings balancing sweet- Potatoes ness to vinegar-braised cab- 1 oz. Colston Bassett bage from chef Luke Frankie Stilton cheese or other creamy blue cheese, at The Drapers Arms. Retain- shredded (about 1/4 cup) ing just enough crunch, the bright side helps cut through 1/2 tsp. ground white pepper the richer dishes on the table.

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/2 cup panko (about 4 oz.), divided 11/2 oz. Parmesan cheese, 2 small white onions, finely ground in a food thinly sliced (4 cups) processor (about 1/3 cup) 1 medium-size red cabbage (about 21/2 lb.), 1. Preheat oven to 425°F. cored and thinly sliced Bring 3 quarts water to a boil (about 12 cups) in a large pot over high. Sea- 11/2 cups red wine vinegar son with 1/3 cup salt. Add cauli- 1/2 cup granulated sugar flower, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 1/3 cup red currant jelly about 8 minutes. Using a slot- 2 tsp. kosher salt ted spoon, transfer cauli- flower to a large bowl filled Heat 1/4 cup butter in a large, with ice water. Let stand 5 high-sided skillet over minutes. Drain cauliflower, medium. Add onions, and

FOOD STYLING: TORIE COX; PROP STYLING: CLAIRE SPOLLEN STYLING: PROP COX; TORIE STYLING: FOOD and arrange in a single layer cook, stirring often, until

FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 88 12142018123502 12/14/18 12:33 PM FW_0219_SundayRoast.indd 89 12142018123502 12/14/18 12:33 PM cool to room temperature, 2 Tbsp. beef tallow or This Sticky Toffee and 1. Preheat oven to 425°F with cups mushrooms, and cook, 1 cup unsalted butter about 1 hour. Chill potatoes 8 melted unsalted butter Earl Grey Pudding is in- oven rack in lower third of stirring occasionally, until (8 oz.), plus more for hours or overnight with fused with the flavors of oven. Rub roast all over with mushrooms are deeply greasing bergamot—making it a weighted pan on top. 1. Whisk together milk and sea salt, and place roast, fat caramelized, 6 to 8 minutes. 1 cup heavy cream perfect complement to a eggs in a large bowl. Gradu- 3. Remove weighted pan and post-roast cup of tea. cap up, on a wire rack set Transfer mushrooms to a Vanilla ice cream or ally whisk in flour and salt top parchment sheet; discard inside a roasting pan. Let medium bowl. Repeat brown- clotted cream, for until well combined. Pour serving parchment sheet. Run a knife roast stand at room tempera- ing process with remaining 2 mixture through a fine wire- around edges of pan to loosen ture while oven is preheating, tablespoons oil and remain- mesh strainer into a bowl; dis- 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. potato cake. Invert potato about 30 minutes. (Roast may ing mushrooms. card any lumps. Cover and be seasoned and refrigerated, Place dates, tea bags, and cake onto a cutting board; 2. Return all mushrooms to chill batter 3 hours or up to uncovered, up to overnight. baking soda in a medium remove and discard parch- skillet over medium. Stir in overnight. Let stand 30 minutes at room bowl. Add 11/4 cups boiling ment liner. Cut potato cake sherry vinegar and fleur de temperature before proceed- water, and let stand 15 min- into 7 equal strips (about 1 2. Place a large 12-cup muffin sel, scraping browned bits off ing.) Insert a probe thermom- utes. Remove and discard tea inch wide). Cut each strip pan (6 ounces per cup) on bottom of skillet. Cook until eter in thickest part of roast. bags. Stir mixture with a fork crosswise into 3 equal pieces. middle oven rack. Preheat liquid is reduced by half, to break apart dates. Using a knife, carefully split oven to 425°F. When oven is 2. Roast in preheated oven about 1 minute. Add 4 cups each piece in half to form 42 preheated, remove pan, and until meat is lightly browned, cream, and bring to a simmer, 2. Stir together flour, baking 1 3 (about 2 /2- x 1-inch) pieces add /4 teaspoon beef tallow 20 to 25 minutes. Without whisking occasionally. Cook, powder, and 3/4 teaspoon salt 3 (about /4 inch thick). Transfer to 8 muffin cups. Return muf- opening oven, reduce oven whisking occasionally, until in a medium bowl; set aside. potato pieces to a baking fin pan to oven, and heat until temperature to 225°F. Con- gravy is thickened and Combine shortening, 1/4 cup sheet lined with parchment tallow is hot but not smoking, tinue roasting until internal reduced to about 3 cups, light muscovado sugar, and 1/4 paper, and freeze until solid, about 6 minutes. temperature of meat registers about 30 minutes. If gravy cup dark muscovado sugar in at least 30 minutes or up to 1 3. Pour about 1/4 cup batter 120°F, about 2 hours and 30 gets too thick or separates, the bowl of a stand mixer. month. (If freezing to use at a 1 into each muffin cup with hot minutes for medium-rare. whisk in up to /4 cup more Beat on medium speed until later date, transfer frozen tallow, and bake at 425°F until Transfer roast to a cutting cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, no lumps remain, about 1 potato pieces to a large zip- golden brown and puffed, 16 board, and let rest 40 minutes until desired consistency is minute. Add eggs, 1 at a time, lock plastic freezer bag.) to 20 minutes. (Do not open before slicing. Sprinkle slices reached. Whisk in tarragon, beating well after each addi- 4. While potatoes are freez- oven while baking or pud- with sel gris, and serve with and serve. tion. With mixer running on ing, heat 11/2 inches of oil in a dings will collapse.) Using an Morel Cream Gravy and carv- low speed, gradually add flour Dutch oven over medium- offset spatula or a butter ing board juices. Sticky Toffee and Earl mixture just until incorpo- rated. Stir in date mixture. high to 375°F. Working in knife, carefully remove pud- WINE Substantial, old-school Grey Pudding Lightly grease a 9-inch square batches, fry frozen potato dings from pan, and serve Bordeaux red: 2015 Château PHOTO AT LEFT pieces (keeping remaining immediately. baking pan with butter. Pour de Pez Saint-Estèphe ACTIVE 35 MIN; TOTAL 1 HR 30 pieces frozen), turning occa- batter into prepared pan, and MIN; SERVES 9 bake in preheated oven until a sionally, until golden brown Sea Salt Rib Roast Morel Cream Gravy and crispy, 5 to 6 minutes. wooden pick inserted in cen- PHOTO P. 85 One bite of chef Merlin Using a slotted spoon or spi- ACTIVE 45 MIN; TOTAL 55 MIN ter of pudding comes out Labron-Johnson’s take on this der, transfer potato pieces to ACTIVE 20 MIN; TOTAL 4 HR 20 MAKES 3 CUPS clean, 30 to 32 minutes. classic dessert and you’ll a brown paper–lined rimmed MIN; SERVES 12 This cream gravy from chefs understand why he earned a 3. While pudding bakes, com- baking sheet. Sprinkle fried Longtime friends James James Knappett and Shaun Michelin star at the tender bine butter, heavy cream, potatoes evenly with remain- 3 age of 24 at Portland. Dates remaining /4 cup light musco- 1 Knappett and Shaun Searley Searley is infused with the ing 1 /2 teaspoons salt. Serve 1 heady aroma of caramelized are a regular player in sticky vado sugar, remaining /2 cup immediately. teamed up to deliver this grand rib roast—a crowning morel mushrooms spiked with toffee pudding recipes; dark muscovado sugar, and 1 moment for any meal. Show- sherry vinegar. If morels are Labron-Johnson steeps them remaining /2 teaspoon salt in Beef Tallow–Baked ering the roast with a handful unavailable, simply substitute in Earl Grey tea, infusing a large saucepan. Bring to a Yorkshire Pudding of English Maldon salt adds an with sliced button mush- them with the bright, aromatic boil over medium-high, whisk- PHOTO P. 88 extra layer of crunch to the rooms. Keep the cream gravy lift of bergamot. ing often. Boil, whisking con- ACTIVE 15 MIN; TOTAL 3 HR 50 roast’s crust. The sliced roast hot until ready to serve, up to stantly, until sauce reaches MIN; SERVES 8 is then further seasoned with 30 minutes, and add the tar- 2 cups pitted Medjool 218°F on an instant-read ther- sel gris, a coarse sea salt with ragon just before serving. dates, finely chopped mometer, about 3 minutes. Yorkshire pudding was born in deep minerality that pairs 2 Earl Grey tea bags Remove from heat. 1 the days of roaring hearth beautifully with beef. Be sure /4 cup grapeseed oil, 1 tsp. baking soda 4. Remove pudding from fires, where it was baked to remove the roast from the divided 11/4 cups boiling water oven, and immediately prick underneath roasting spits of oven when the internal tem- 1 lb. fresh morel or button 2 cups all-purpose flour all over with a wooden or meat, catching the juices. mushrooms, sliced perature reaches 120°F; it will 1 metal skewer, piercing all the (about 7 cups), divided (about 8 /2 oz.) Chef Sean Searley spoons off continue cooking during the way to the bottom of pan. Pour 1 2 tsp. baking powder beef tallow, the clear fat drip- 40-minute rest time. /3 cup sherry vinegar 11/2 cups warm toffee sauce 11/4 tsp. sea salt, divided pings pooling below a resting 11/2 tsp. fleur de sel evenly over pudding, and let beef roast, to grease the tins. 1 (9-lb.) boneless beef rib 3/4 cup vegetable 41/4 cups heavy cream, stand until sauce is absorbed, roast divided shortening about 30 minutes. Cut warm 1 cup whole milk 3 Tbsp. flaky sea salt 1 cup light muscovado 11/2 tsp. chopped fresh pudding into 9 (3-inch) 5 large eggs (such as Maldon) tarragon sugar, divided squares. Drizzle servings 1 1 cup all-purpose flour 11/2 tsp. sel gris 3/4 cup dark muscovado evenly with remaining /2 cup 1 (about 4 /4 oz.) Morel Cream Gravy 1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a sugar, divided toffee sauce; top with ice 1 11/2 tsp. kosher salt (recipe follows) large skillet over high. Add 3 /2 3 large eggs cream or clotted cream.

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